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Sunday, December 1, 2013

PHMSA Revises Forms in 30-Day ICR for Pipeline Reports

On Wednesday the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety
Administration (PHMSA) published their 30-day
information collection (ICR) notice in the Federal Register (78 FR
71033-71036) for planned revisions to the various pipeline incident and MFF
reporting forms. The notice includes responses to three sets of industry
comments, including further changes to the reporting formats covered under the
ICR.

The 60-day notice was published
back in June and covered 6 separate incident and MFF reports required to be
submitted by various pipeline operators. PHMSA received comments on that ICR
notice from three organizations:

In response to these comments PHMSA is making the following
additional changes to the forms:

(F 7100.1) PHMSA has revised the
note in Part G1 of the instructions to clarify that non-corrosion bonnet,
packing, or other gasket failures could be reported under “Incorrect
Operations” or under “Equipment Failure.”

(F 7100.1 and F 7100.2) PHMSA has
modified the instructions for Incorrect Operations and Equipment Failure in
response to NORMAC's proposal for language clarification.

(F 7100.2) In a report titled,
“PIPELINE SAFETY Better Data and Guidance Needed to Improve Pipeline Operator
Incident Response” (GAO-13-168) the Government Accountability Office recommends
that PHMSA improve the reliability of incident response data. PHMSA concurs
with the GAO recommendation and has proposed this change to collect more
meaningful data from which to calculate operator response time. PHMSA will
calculate response time as “arrival on-site” minus “failure awareness.”

(F 7100.2) PHMSA has modified the
instructions to accept onshore reports without a valid value for County/Parish
and will ensure the database is appropriately configured.

(F 7100.2-1) PHMSA has modified the
instructions for Part C so that all gas transmission operators are required to
submit volume transported data.

(F 7100.2-1) PHMSA is making a
number of changes to the instructions for Parts Q and R as suggested by INGAA.

(F 7100.2-1) PHMSA is modifying the
instructions to clarify the effective date for the form.

(F 7100.2-1) PHMSA has modified the
“General Instructions” of Part Q to clarify that supplemental reports to change
the record status are optional.

(F 7100.2-1) PHMSA has expanded
some details in Parts H thru R to explain the consistency between the
requirements.

(F 7100.2-1) PHMSA has revised the
instructions in Part M to clarify that only Third Party damages are to be reported
under the heading “Third Party Damage/Mechanical Damage”.

PHMSA is soliciting comments on the revised forms and the
revised information collection request. Comments may be submitted directly to
OMB (oira_submissions@omb.eop.gov).
Comments should be received by OIRA by December 27th, 2013.

About Me

I spent 15 years in the US Army as an Infantry NCO. After getting out of the Army I started working in the chemical industry, getting my BSc Chemistry degree while working as a technician. I spent 12 years working as a process chemist in a specialty chemical company. I'm now working as a QA Manager in a specialty chemical manufacturing facility.